People brave cold weather, lines for shopping deals

Anderson Target store manager Ryan Merriman hands out maps to the store shortly before it opened on Thanksgiving Day.

EASLEY - Daniel Kramer stood in the same line twice to get deals just after midnight on Black Friday.

He came to the Easley Gamestop about two hours before it opened, at midnight, to get two tablets, for $80 each. Minutes later, he went in the back of the line with a friend, hoping to score a Playstation 3.

Kramer regretted not wearing a heavier jacket as the temperatures began to sink into the mid-30s.

Standing right behind Kramer was Sandi Thurlow and her nephew, Trey Thurlow, who are into the second year of a tradition of shopping with each other in the wee hours.

As Walmart, Target, Sears and other stores begin opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day instead of on Black Friday, the stores have changed how the lines work at other retailers.

"It's the Super Bowl of shopping," said Trotter Pruitt, an Easley resident who was waiting to get into Kohl's.

Five hours before Kohl's and Lowe's stores in both Anderson and Easley opened, there was no one was in line.

That never would have happened in previous years, said Eddie Monday. He came, as a "bodyguard and moral support," with his daughter, Kayla Monday, who was aiming for the boot section at the Easley Kohl's.

They came to the store last year, about two and a half hours before the doors opened, and they were somewhere around 200th in line. This year, the father-daughter duo made it in the top 10.

They came to watch, as Eddie Monday phrased it, "all the crazy people." He said that crazy is relative and he enjoys seeing all the excitement of a Black Friday shopping crowd.

Not everyone was excited. Nate Hyre, of Mauldin, said he was so bored, he said he will never come out for Black Friday deals again.

He stood off to the side but was still in the front of the line at the Easley Kohl's, along with friends Lacey Ferguson, Adam Ferguson and Stephanie Gilstrap.

The women came to get deals on boots and managed to be first in line by showing up around 9 p.m.

Already sporting signature boots, along with a red and white Mrs. Santa Claus suit, Retta Sundblad issued loud season's greetings and waved to everyone as she walked to the back of the line at the Kohl's in Easley. She is a veteran of Black Friday sales, several decades worth.

Her grandson is learning the ropes. He was tasked with immediately getting into a checkout line with a cart, which Sundblad will fill as she goes throughout the store on a pre-planned route.

"It's the great deals but also the fun," she said. "The camaraderie of it is really what you end up enjoying."

Like many people in line around midnight, Sundblad had already made stops at Walmart and Kmart.

She said all the bargain shoppers hitting multiple stores could well explain why the lines at Kohl's and other stores were not lined up well in advance, as usual.

After the midnight stores opened, it took a few hours for the lines to begin forming at stores that were set to open early Friday stores like JC Penney, which opened at 6 a.m.

By 1 a.m., there was no one in line at the Easley JC Penney. The nearby Belk department store, which opened at midnight and shares the same parking lot, was packed.

A dozen cars were lined up outside of Hobby Lobby as shoppers staked their claim while staying warm.